Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi was born on April 23, 1918 to Shungo and
Mitsuko Hirabayashi. Shungo Hirabayashi immigrated to the United States in 1907
from a farming community in Nagano prefecture, Japan. He and Mitsuko married in
1914 when she traveled to the United States for their arranged marriage. One
year later they moved and farmed on the shore of Lake Washington in the Sand
Point area of Seattle, where Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi was born in 1918. The
family moved to Thomas, Washington in the White River Valley near Auburn where
Gordon and his four siblings, Edward, James, Esther Toshiko, and Richard, were
raised. Gordon Hirabayashi graduated from Auburn High School in 1935 and
started at the University of Washington in 1937.

Hirabayashi began his studies as a part-time student at the University
of Washington in the fall of 1937. He worked throughout college and was an
active member of the Young Mens Christian Association (YMCA) on the University
of Washington campus in Eagleson Hall. Through the YMCA he received room and
board for tending the furnace in the building. In 1940 Hirabayashi was awarded
a fellowship to attend a YMCA and YWCA sponsored leadership conference at
Columbia University. He was influenced by many Christian leaders and his
experience at the conference broadened his awareness of isolationist and
pacifist arguments against United States involvement in the growing conflicts
in Europe and the Pacific. He returned to Seattle in the fall of 1940 and
registered for the draft as a conscientious objector and became a Quaker and
member of the Religious Society of Friends.

After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 those of
Japanese ancestry were subject to harsh restrictions on basic freedoms. On
February 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt authorizing the mass forced removal and incarceration of all West
Coast Japanese Americans. Many business and home owners were forced to leave a
majority of their belongings behind as they were removed first to temporary
assembly centers and then to relocation camps. Many would lose their land and
belongings while incarcerated. Hirabayashi was among the American Friends
Service Committee volunteers who assisted families with the relocation,
including arranging storage of their belongings. Hirabayashi's parents and
family in Thomas, Washington were uprooted from their farm and moved to the
Pinedale assembly center, California and then to Tule Lake Relocation Camp,
California.

Instead of registering for relocation, Hirabayashi turned himself in
to the FBI with the objective of testing the relocation and incarceration
order's constitutionality without a due process of law. He was charged with
violating the curfew and exclusion orders and was represented by Arthur
Barnett, and was supported by a defense fund - the Gordon Hirabayashi Defense
Committee. The committee was organized by Mary Farquharson, lawyer for the
University District of the ACLU, and law partners Arthur Barnett, John
Geisness, and later Frank L. Walters. Hirabayashi was indicted on May 28, 1942
and was arraigned on June 1, 1942, at which time he entered a plea of "not
guilty," stating that both the exclusion law and curfew were racially
prejudiced and unconstitutional. His trial was on October 20, 1942 before Judge
Lloyd D. Black. He lost his case and was sentenced to 90 days at the Dupont
road camp outside Tacoma. His case was taken to the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals in San Francisco, where the court declined to rule and passed the case
on to the Supreme Court. On May 10, 1943 the court did not tackle the
constitutionality of the exclusion order as Hirabayashi had hoped but instead
the heard arguments pertaining only to the violation of the curfew order. On
June 21, 1943 there was a unanimous ruling in Hirabayashi v. United States,
(320 U.S. 81) upholding the earlier Hirabayashi conviction and that the curfew
order was justified by military necessity and allowable in a time of war.
Hirabayashi was to serve his sentence at the Tucson Federal Prison in Arizona
but was required to provide his own transportation there. He hitchhiked 1,600
miles in the fall of 1943 from Spokane, Washington to Tucson, Arizona where he
had to convince officials at the Catalina Federal Honor Camp he had a
legitimate order that authorized his acceptance into the prison. The prison had
yet to receive his papers and confirmation that he was to serve his sentence
there so they told him to go to a movie and return later. Upon his return they
had indeed found his papers and he was admitted to the prison. He was released
in December 1943 and returned to Spokane.

Gordon Hirabayashi married Esther Schmoe in a Quaker ceremony in
Spokane, Washington on July 29, 1944. They had met while studying at the
University of Washington. In 1945 they had twin daughters, Sharon and Marion
and in 1946 they had a son, Jay. Hirabayashi continued his education at the
University of Washington, completing his B.A. in 1946 and then his M.A. in
1949, and Ph.D. in sociology in 1952. Hirabayashi took a position in the
Sociology Department at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon in 1951 and
then at the American University in Cairo where he taught and was assistant
director of the Social Research Center until 1959. The family moved to
Edmonton, Canada where he continued to teach sociology and became the Chair of
the Department in 1963. He retired 20 years later.

Shortly after retirement, Hirabayashi was contacted by Peter Irons, a
civil rights attorney who while conducting research for a book on the Supreme
Court's dealings with the Japanese Internment cases, discovered a document
revealing government wrongdoing. Other documents and reports were found, among
them General John L. DeWitt's Final Report draft on Japanese Incarceration.
Hirabayashi agreed to have a team of lawyers re-open his wartime case and file
a coram nobis petition stating that the
government, during World War II, had suppressed, altered, and destroyed
material evidence. In 1987 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of
Hirabayashi's case, vacating his previous conviction.

Gordon Hirabayashi met Susan Carnahan of Edmonton, Alberta at a Quaker
meeting where he was a long time member. Hirabayashi and his first wife,
Esther, had divorced in the early 1970s and in 1986 he married Susan Carnahan,
a free-lance writer and photographer. Hirabayashi toured and spoke at
universities and other venues about his experiences, including participating in
a panel discussion in Japan in 1988. He was honored with many awards such as
the University of Washington’s Distinguished Alumnus Award and the San
Francisco Certificate of Honors as well as honorary degrees from University of
Lethbridge, Michigan State University, and Hamline University. The Tucson
Federal Prison site where Hirabayashi had served his sentence for refusing the
curfew and exclusion order become a part of the Coronado National Forest and a
recreation site and was named after him in 1999. Hirabayashi died on January 2,
2012. In May he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by
President Barack Obama, the highest civilian honor awarded.

. In the first interview, Hirabayashi discusses his parents, their
religious beliefs and experiences as immigrants from Japan, the farm on which
he grew up, and his early schooling and life. The second interview is a
continuation of the first. Here he discusses his parents and his later
schooling, particularly his activities at the University of Washington.
Included is the period immediately after Pearl Harbor, when Hirabayashi
resolved to resist the curfew and exclusion order. In the third interview,
Hirabayashi describes his involvement with the University Meeting of the
Society of Friends, the basis for his decision to resist the curfew and
relocation, and his parents' reaction to his decision. He then discusses his
arrest and conviction and his release to Spokane pending appeal. The fourth
interview continues this discussion, covering the appeal to the Supreme Court,
Hirabayashi's imprisonment in Arizona, his work with the American Friends
Service Committee to assist Japanese families in relocating out of internment
camps, his second trial and conviction for draft resistance, and his
imprisonment at McNeil Island. The fifth interview focuses primarily on
Hirabayashi's academic career and concludes with is reflections on his civil
disobedience and its significance for the 1980s. .

Scope and Content: Hirabayashi relates his family history, his story of defying the
curfew, and his periods of imprisonment to Lois Logan Horn. Horn is a friend of
Hirabayashi’s from their Y.M.C.A./Y.W.C.A. involvements during college.
The taped interview was transcribed into an abridged version by Mrs. Horn. The
sequence of information has also been changed from the tape to the
transcript.

Arrangement: The collection is arranged in the following series:Biographical files, circa 1969-2012.
Series contains personal biographical and autobiographical material, curriculum
vitae, family histories, and obituaries.Personal files, 1934-1985. Series
contains materials relating primarily to Hirabayashi's school years, including
high school yearbooks.Correspondence, 1941-2012. Series
contains correspondence to and from Hirabayashi and his family members with a
wide range of correspondents including Arthur Barnett, Hirabayashi's defender
in Hirabayashi v. United States, writer Frank Chin, officers and members of the
JACL, and politicians such as Washington Governor Gary Locke, California
Senator S. I. Hiyakawa, and Ohio Senator John Glenn.Wartime, 1940-1998. Series contains
materials primarily from the World War II-era, during which Hirabayashi
purposefully violated curfew and refused to complete a "loyalty" questionnaire,
which resulted in his imprisonment. The series covers his time in jail and the
Supreme Court case challenging his imprisonment, which was decided against him.
The series is divided into the following subseries:

King County Jail, 1942-1943

Hirabayashi v. United States, 1942-1998

Prison, 1943-1945

Government records, 1940-1946

Incarceration Camps, 1941-2000.Series
contains contemporary and later documents on the forced removal and
incarceration of Japanese Americans. The series is divided into the following
subseries:

Contemporary records, 1941-1949

Post-incarceration period records, 1958-2000

Redress 1941-2000.Series contains
records relating to the Japanese American redress movement, which sought an
official apology and compensation for for their treatment during World War II.
The series is divided into the following subseries:

Records, 1945-2000

JACL, 1941-1999

Organizations, 1975-1988

Clippings, articles, and related documents, 1974-2000

Coram Nobis Case, circa 1942-2000.
Series contains records on the Hirabayashi coram nobis case, in which his
previous conviction was overturned based on suppression of evidence. The series
is divided into the following subseries:

Legal files, 1964-1995

Related documents, circa 1942-1999

Post-War Career, 1945-2012. Series
contains material from Hirabayashi's life and career after the war and court
cases, which includes many lectures and public speaking events. The series is
divided into the following subseries:

Writings by Hirabayashi, 1949-1998

Conferences, events, and teaching, 1967-2002

Material from colleagues, 1945-2011

Clippings and articles, 1949-2012

Honors and Inspired Works, 1972-2012
Series contains files on degrees, awards, and other honors bestowed on
Hirabayashi, as well as works and projects that were inspired by his story
and/or the Japanese American experience. The series is divided into the
following subseries:

Awards and Honors, 1972-2012

Theater, 1981-2004

Documentary film, 1982-1999

Museum exhibits, 1987-2000

Books, 1988-2011

Japanese-Canadian Incarceration/Redress,
1942-1999. Series contains material, primarily newspaper clippings, on
the Japanese Canadian experience during World War II.Oversize, 1941-2012. Series contains
large-format materials such as event posters, awards and degrees, and clippings
scrapbooks. The series is divided into the following subseries:

Scrapbooks, 1941-1943

Awards & Honors, 1976-2000

Posters, 1983-2012

Scope and Content: Collection of correspondence, photographs, clippings, and other
documents relating to the life of Gordon Hirabayashi.

Restrictions on Access: Open to all users.

Restrictions on Use: Creators' literary rights transferred to the University of
Washington Libraries.

Biographical/Historical Note: Marina Hsieh is an attorney who introduced Gordon Hirabayashi at
the American Civil Liberties Union National Biennial Conference, Medal of
Liberty Award Ceremony, in Miami, Florida on June 15, 2001.

Scope and Content: "In Honor of Gordon Hirabayashi" speech by Marina Hsieh, presented
at the Medal of Liberty Award Ceremony in Miami, Florida, on June 15, 2001

Restrictions on Access: Open to all users.

Restrictions on Use: Creator's copyrights not transferred to the University of
Washington Libraries.